The NHL regular season has drawn to an end, and now the playoffs are about
to get rolling. Hockey is a great sport, but it is never better than the
two months of the postseason. The Eastern Conference doesn't feel nearly as
deep as West does this year, but the top two teams - Washington and
Pittsburgh - feel like the two best teams in the NHL right now. They could
meet up in a second-round battle for the ages, but before that there are
four series offered in the first round for us to focus on. Two should be
pretty good, one should be fun because of how lopsided it is, and one just
doesn't seem even remotely interesting. Here's how they set up (Odds to win
the Eastern Conference
are from Bovada
):

Washington (+230) vs. Toronto (+1400):
Wow, this is not going to go well. All Toronto needed to do was get a point
against a Columbus team that had nothing to play for in their finale and
they would avoid Washington and get a Battle of Ontario with Ottawa that
would have been a thrill for fans. They couldn't pull it off, though, so
now they have to play the hottest and arguably best team in the league.
Washington allowed the fewest goals per game in the league and scored the
second most. It's not hard to win a lot of games with that combination.
Washington had floundered a little a while back, but they have won 10 of
their last 12 and are in top form.

After so much playoff disappointment over the years they are focused and
hungry, and they aren't going to let an overachieving and very raw Toronto
team get in their way. If the Leafs win a game in this series it will be
their Stanley Cup victory. I don't see it happening. Toronto lost three of
their last four games and didn't exactly handle the pressure of trying to
clinch a playoff spot with grace. This is too much for them to handle at
this point in the development of the Leafs. It's not going to be a good
series.

Montreal (+700) vs. New York Rangers (+800):
On the surface, this series is a good example of the flaws of the wild-card
playoff system. Montreal has 103 points, and that won them their division.
The Rangers have 102points, and because they play in a
much tougher division they are a wild card team. Montreal certainly doesn't
get rewarded for a division win here.

What's interesting, though, is that even by the NBA playoff system - first
plays eighth, and so on - these teams would meet. Montreal has the
fourth-best record in the conference, and the Rangers are fifth.
Regardless, it sets up as a heck of a series.

The teams have played three times since Jan. 14, and the Canadiens swept
the series. One game was a shootout, and the other was a close 5-4 contest,
though, so there isn't dominance here.

As the points suggest, there isn't a lot separating these two teams. The
Rangers score a bit more, but they allow a few more goals, too. The
Canadiens don't really care where they play - home and road records are
similar. The Rangers are a rare team that was significantly better on the
road than at home this year.

I lean towards Montreal in this one for two reasons. The Habs have been the
stronger team in the closing stretch of this season, and it's easier to
believe that Carey Price can be all-World in the playoffs at this point
than it is Henrik Lundqvist. That being said, there isn't really a result
in this series that would be at all surprising. And, ultimately, neither of
these teams is winning the conference anyways.

Pittsburgh (+375) vs. Columbus (+500):
The Blue Jackets have been a great story this year. They recovered from a
mess of a season this year to mount a historic winning streak and finish
far higher in the standings than anyone could have possibly imagined. And
sadly it all ends here.

Pittsburgh is just too good, too experienced, and too hungry to fail.
Columbus will put up a fight and win a game or two, but by every measure
Pittsburgh has the edge, and they are going to exert it here. Columbus has
limped into the postseason, they have some health concerns, and they can't
match the Penguins offensively. Most significantly, though, the team just
doesn't have the depth of experience they need to draw on in a tough
playoff series. That would be a problem no matter what, but against a team
as experienced as the Penguins it's a serious problem.

The biggest cause for concern would be if the Penguins are looking past
this series because they want a piece of the Capitals next round. That's
not a significant concern, though, because while Pittsburgh could
conceivably do that for a game they aren't going to let it happen more than
once. This is close to a worst-case scenario first round matchup for
Columbus.

Ottawa (+1200) vs. Boston (+1400):
Wow, do I ever find it hard to care about this series. Both teams have
overachieved somewhat this year - more Ottawa than Boston - and I don't
give either of them any real chance of being relevant in the hunt for the
conference title. I give Boston the edge here - Ottawa hasn't been great
down the stretch, Boston has more offense, and Ottawa has had some health
concerns lately.

This is, by a wide margin, the least interesting series - of the entire
playoffs.

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Sunday December 17th 2017- Take
#320 Washington -4.5 over Arizona
(1:00pm est): The Washington
Redskins had a tough defeat a few
weeks back at Dallas and that loss
more or less ended their playoff hopes
for this season. The Skins had a no-
show effort last week as they traveled
out to LA to play a red hot Chargers
team and they were crushed in that
game. The good news from that is it
sets up some nice line value here at
home for Washington. This is still a
very talented team that's played the
toughest schedule in the league this
year. In fact this is only their 3rd
opponent all year with a losing record
and the Skins have went 3-0 in those
three games. Arizona is also out of the
playoff race and also using their 3rd
string quarterback. Making things even
more tough for the Cardinals in this
one is that this is equal to a 10:00am
PST start time for Arizona. Coming off
an upset win last week you have to
wonder how much they have left in the
tank for what amounts to a
meaningless game for them. Take
Washington minus the points. Read MoreRead Less

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